


Literal Light, Are You Aware?

by columbobonsnax



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Drabble, Drunk Rose Lalonde, Gen, Horrorterrors - Freeform, Love Letters, Trolls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 08:14:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18311714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/columbobonsnax/pseuds/columbobonsnax
Summary: Rose has a tendency to drink while on the Trolls' meteor during their 3-year journey, and she also has a tendency to write mushy, emotional letters to the woman she loves.





	Literal Light, Are You Aware?

Rose laid, snoozing, atop a pile of pillows in the corner of her study. The bottle of alchemized gin sat beside her, equally horizontal in its position as though it had fallen from her grasp and rolled enough away to give her the privacy of sleep. Her breathing was rhythmic, slow and serene like the whispered hum of meditation, and it animated her chest slightly as she slept. Her blonde hair fell over her face, protecting her from the light illuminating the hallway, visible from the slightly ajar door.

 

Scattered amongst the desks and bookshelves were the seemingly endless piles of notebooks that she had alchemized to fill her otherwise free time. Ink scratched across the pages in bunches of half legible phrases and drawings of what might have been mollusca. No, she had not gone insane during their journey, but she had spent long stretches of time attempting to commune with the legion of zoologically ambiguous terrors that she had described in her large journals. Drawings of such beasts were stuck to the walls between attempts to sketch the likenesses of friends she hadn’t seen in what felt like eons, forevers lost in another timeline.

 

The sound of footsteps paddling up the corridor did not wake the sleeping seer. Neither did the further opening of the door or the stretching shadow backlit by the steps he had just walked.

 

The friend entered the room, careful not to step on any of the scattered pages that littered the floor. Karkat had been looking for Rose. Dave had mentioned earlier that she seemed to be going back into one of her lengthy drunken nights where she isolated herself, and it didn’t seem, to the troll at least, to be the healthiest thing to do. It was just a routine wellness check, just like the variety of check ins he would perform for all of his friends. Of course, it helped that he didn’t mind Rose as much, when she was in one of her more pleasant moods. 

 

He stepped around the piles and found her lying still, that damn smirk on her face. At least she wasn’t as spastically emotional as John, he noted with joking relief. Karkat looked down at the girl. She looked so young when she slept. It made him forget, momentarily, that she was a veteran of battles that they were all too young to be forced into, battles too fierce for humans who were not raised in the treachery and societal violence that plagued Alternia. Earth had sounded like a soft place comparatively. He let himself imagine what it would be like to have grown up somewhere less dangerous, less saturated with threats against his life and caste. Would this weigh on his heart? The fantasy of living a life he would never be able to visit was not something he could truly allow himself to marinate in for any length of time. It was too risky when they were so close to their goal. All that stood in their way was time.

 

Karkat reached for the empty bottle and placed it on the table somewhere against the walls of the room. Gently, gently. He didn’t want to wake her, not now. Not while she was away from the increasing sense of dread that seemed to gloom over everyone on the meteor as they grew closer by the day to their destination. It was easier to pretend it didn’t exist until they had to face it head on, wasn’t it? He refused to allow himself to sigh. Instead, he permitted his eyes to catch a line or two of one of a note that sat haphazardly on the edge of the table.

 

_ Literal Light, are you aware of the _

 

Aware of what? Karkat couldn’t help himself as he found the page between his hands.

 

_ Literal Light, are you aware of the means _

_ The methods, the ways, the varieties, the torture _

_ With which you have ensnared and captured my affections? _

 

This was exactly the genre he loved to read the most. Rose was writing such romantically tinged prose? Poetry? Words. He pursed his lips and wondered to himself if slipping her one of his favorite novels would be too forward of a way to open the door for discussion on the matter. He ran his fingers over the words, feeling the indentations from her pen and ink onto the paper. There was more.

 

_ Kanaya, _

_ Do you already know? You must know. If you do not, then I could only estimate your mental capabilities to be on par with a particularly scantly intelligent goldfish.  _

 

This was the Rose that Karkat knew. The rest of the page was a jumble of words thrown, presumably, at herself. She was harsh on herself, he realized. No wonder she was so secretive about her writings. He placed the note back where he found it, trying to mimic the way it had already been laying when he had found it before turning to move back towards the door.

 

He made it several steps before he caught another sheet of paper with more endearing terms sketched onto it.

 

_ I think I might have feelings all of the feelings some of the feelings no no no all of them and they’re all great and lovely and for you and I need you to know they are not grey or blue or pink but theyre so red the reddest you cannot even phathom no phantom no fathom you would not believe how red they are all of my feelings I didnt know I could have so many _

 

Karkat cocked his head at this one until he saw the liquid stain dried across the bottom half of the empty page. He had to get out of this room. It was too much temptation to continue reading. He hurried himself out and back into the hallway, closing the door just enough to let a sliver of light inside. He just had to report back to Dave and let him know that his sister was fine, that she was napping. Easy enough. It was just a simple walk back into the computer lab, back to Dave where he was probably rapping to himself again trying to find the soft drink he had alchemized for himself earlier. A simple walk back to the computer lab, passed Kanaya’s room, where she would be sitting worrying about Rose too.

 

He finally allowed himself to sigh.


End file.
